Windows 7: 3.25G usable out of 4G RAM win7 64-bit

i am running windows 7 Home premium 64-bit and recently upgraded my RAM from 3GB to 4GB. Windows 7 reports only 3.25 being usable.

• i have a dedicated video card an my onboard one is definitely disabled.
• my BIOS reports 4096MB RAM detected.
• max memory and CPU are unchecked in msconfig.

from looking at the resource monitor i see that 770MB of RAM is labeled as hardware reserved memory.

also i don't know if my BIOS supports a memory remap feature or not but even if it does its a locked HP BIOS so most setting are inaccessible.

is there any way to get my full memory? or does anyone know why this is happening on a 64-bit os?



Thanks in Advance.

F0ICE, welcome to the Seven Forums.

While the re-map is definitely needed (on newer boards it is enabled by default and the option may not be available), no idea if that is one that HP would hide or not if available. Another thing to consider is if the motherboard/chipset itself supports more than 4 GB. This should help explain what I mean by that,

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

Just change the mentioned 8 GB to 4 GB if your motherboard is one that only supports up to 4 GB, and the same applies.

Any 32 bit os can only map 4Gb of memory im total, so that includes motherboard and even hard drive requirements, but more importantly the memory on your graphics card, so if you have a 512Mb card Windows 32 bit will map that out of the total 'seen' memory of 4gb immediately leaving you with only 3.5 Gb avialable. Add up all the other mapped requirements and 3.25Gig is just about average. Which is more than enough for any application thusfore built (even 64 bit actually, but that's a whole other question).

so since i hit my motherboard's memory threshold it reserved the missing 0.75GB of ram for PCI devices. and the memory remapping feature that i either don't have or can't get to would bypass that allowing me full memory access. this would also explain why SIW reports so many memory address ranges assigned to the system board. am i right? either way i need to find a new motherboard if i want the rest of my memory.
thank you very much for explaining that. it helps to know why this is happening even though i can't fix it.
again thank you for your time.

What shows in your Task Manager>

Run TASKMGR -> Performance tab, push Resource Monitor button -> select Memory tab.

For example, on my 4GB 64-bit Windows 7 Pro system (ASUS P5Q3 board, P45 chipset, Intel Duo E8400 CPU, 2x2GB DDR3 memory, ATI HD4670 512MB GDDR3 video card:




Note that my ATI HD4670 512MB video card apparently does not take any memory from my 4GB physical memory, which is all available to Windows 7. RMB on Computer -> Properties shows my full 4GB installed, there is no second qualifying line showing "available... " (something less). And Resource Monitor also confirms that all 4GB is available for use by Windows 7 and programs.

I have a similar story on my other machine, with a 1GB ATI HD4850 card. Again, all 4GB is available. Nothing's been carved out for hardware use.

as you can see 770MB is marked as hardware reserved here is SIW's listing of memory ranges.


is it normal for that many system board instances?

I do indeed.

You haven't provided specifics on your hardware setup. Easiest way is to give us three screenshots from CPU-Z, of the CPU, MAINBOARD and GRAPHICS tabs. I'm guessing this is an HP Pavillion laptop, but I don't think you've provided model details.

Knowing the details of your motherboard, chipset, CPU and video hardware as presented by CPU-Z is very useful. But if 770MB is reserved for hardware use (specifically, the video hardware), seems to me that there is nothing that can be done other than change the fundamental hardware (i.e. upgrade to a new video card if possible, which seems unlikely on a laptop).

But let's reserve judgment until we see your hardware details.

If you cannot remap the memory, it looks like you are stuck. Your memory map is typical for this situation. Knowing the model of your computer will help us look up the chipset and motherboard fill in your system spec. But I expect there is nothing you can do.

nope not a laptop. hp pavilion a1250n

motherboard: ms-7184/Amethystm using radeon xpress 200 chipset
CPU: amd athlon x2 3800+ @ 2.0GHz Toledo Socket 939
GPU radeon hd 4350 from gigabyte 512M VRAM PCIE x16
memoryDR PC3200 4x1GB Dual Channel

thats all i can provide right now.
the motherboard and CPU are original to the PC. the motherboard does have an onboard video adapter which is disabled via BIOS.
i have to get back to you on CPUZ but i can say this right now, when i was using 3GB of RAM that hardware reserved memory reading was around 2MB.

i will post CPUZ details tomorrow. thanks for the help.

Um he is running 64 bit